Origin ARS 6

by Scottie Futch

  Scott fought to keep his eyes open for a moment, "Yeah. It might be trying to trick us, but it seems like it can only use one kind of attack at a time. Minigun at range, electric cables close-up."

  "Right. So, if we can slip in close while it uses its minigun," said Rhea.

  Scott nodded to her. "Yeah, that's what I just tried. My timing was a little off, though."

  Rhea looked down to Herbert. "Think you can do your dance that makes us more agile?"

  Herbert nodded to her and began to moonwalk like a pro. It was not long before the group felt lighter on their feet.

  "Right. I'll play decoy," said Scott. "With the stiffness I have in my muscles, I'll probably have better luck surviving the barrage than the tentacles." They discussed the plan for a brief moment after that. The elf maiden agreed to his assessment then readied herself.

  Herbert continued to moonwalk under the cover of the slab while the other party members split up. Scott drew minigun fire, and Rhea slipped around to flank the beast. However, she did not immediately attack. Scott dodged two more rounds of fire while she moved around behind the monster.

  It was strong, but not particularly bright. The moment it began its fourth minigun assault, Rhea rushed in and leapt up into the air. Her sword blazed with elemental lightning just before she slashed the bucket head of the beast. A deep dent was carved in the side of the metal. Lightning surged into the beast, damaging critical systems and weakening its ability to function slightly.

  She managed two more quick strikes before leaping away. The minigun barrage ended just as she got back out of range of its tentacles.

  The beast tried to reorient on her, but Scott kept its attention by throwing rocks and shouting random robot obscenities. "Your mother was a toaster! Your father was a prison toilet!"

  His obnoxious behavior might not have caused the machine monster any concern, but the rocks must have convinced it that it was under attack. It turned back to Scott and prepared to open fire.

  The battle continued for quite some time while they continued their chosen tactic. Scott would annoy the hell out of the beast. Herbert would dance. Rhea would rush in and perform damage dealing.

  Some might think it strange to have the dedicated magic user as the team tank, but it worked. As it turned out, Scott made for a fairly decent agility based tank. At the very least he was annoying enough to keep the simple-minded beast's aggression focused on his position.

  The best fell eventually, and the team cheered their victory. Scott said, "Now that was a better fight."

  "I wouldn't try it without a party, or strong ranged attacks, though," said Rhea. She did not want him getting any silly ideas while she was away at work.

  "No worries there. The weaker critters out in the wasteland are a good work out when it's just me and Herbert," said Scott.

  Herbert joined them as they looked the beast. Rhea's eyes lit up as she checked the power cables. "Copper... So much copper."

  There were several dozen of tentacles, and each of them were as thick as one of Scott's fingers. "Man there has to be over a hundred pounds of the stuff."

  "Easily," said Rhea, "even if I don't bring out Amaryllis, the unprocessed copper alone will be worth a few silver."

  Scott liked the sound of that. What he liked even more, however, was the minigun he pulled out of the junk pile. It was well worn due to the passage of time, but Greelak would probably pay decently for it. He wanted guns to sell and would gladly refurbish anything found in the area in order to have more merchandise.

  He checked the information that he had placed in his Crysta-com after taking the job from Greelak then scanned the minigun. Greelak wanted a shipment of twenty guns, but had said that some weapons would count as more than one.

  "Sweet. This thing counts as four guns," said Scott.

  "Four guns?" asked Rhea curiously. She then blinked and said, "Oh, the job from Greelak?"

  Scott nodded to her. "Yeah. He wants a new shipment of guns to work on while he sells his old stock."

  "Great. We're off to a good start," said Rhea, a smile on her lips. "Though, I'm surprised that you don't want to keep it."

  Keeping the minigun would be something Scott would love to do, but at the moment he had no firearm skills and a great need for money. Besides, now they knew where to go to get guns that could be rebuilt. "If we find a few more, I'll keep the best one. Until I can afford to get a firearm skill, I probably won't do much as damage with it anyway."

  "Sounds good," said Rhea, before pulling the bucket head off to reveal the main components underneath. Her smile returned as she found a medium sized core and two smaller control cores. "This thing was profitable."

  "What are you thinking it was worth to us?" asked Scott. He looked over to see Herbert pull an aluminum casing out of what was probably an engine block before the thing fell apart.

  "As is? Easily twelve silver or more," said Rhea. "I mean, cores of this quality alone are probably worth about four or five."

  Scott nodded to her. He'd seen first-hand that some people were paid more for cores of the same size as the ones he had dug out of a scrap heap. "Makes me wish we could handle the monsters in the center of town."

  Rhea laughed loudly then shook her head. "Don't even think about it. Sure, we would probably be talking gold instead of silver for each of the cores, but those things are on a whole other tier. We'd need to be nearly level two hundred without reincarnating just to survive there."

  They stored the cores and copper in their vehicle storage due to the value of the materials. The random junk scrap was tossed into the cart.

  Several more interesting battles were had before noon. None more dangerous than that first fight, but also none were quite as rewarding, either. After a while Scott began to feel a slight headache. The intensity of the fights had pushed his physical combat skills to the limit. Once again he was approaching his limit for combat and skill experience.

  He suffered in silence, however. Rhea still needed to train, and who knew what Herbert needed.

  By mid-afternoon the headache became moderately severe. However, Rhea finally reached a point where she felt like she should stop fighting. Herbert also seemed ready. The machine monsters in the area were much higher level than they were, but the stats that the team possessed were high enough to compensate as long as they fought as a party.

  The difference in level was still quite extreme, and as such the experience acquired was much higher as well. Even the number of battles that they fought over the course of the last few days, when combined with what they dealt with today, was enough to push them to the point of their experience pools overflowing.

  Scott and Herbert gained only two levels over the course of the week that they had been training alone. In the last few days, the trio banked enough experience to gain five levels once their social experience caught up.

  They drove over to a spot close to where Amaryllis logged out, and Rhea transferred her consciousness to the overly sensual demoness avatar. After a few minutes of teasing Scott with her beautiful darkness, she set about improving the materials that they had collected. There was less total material than last time, but it was all better quality. By the time she finished, and they sold their load at the scrap yard, they managed to pull in a beautiful haul of just over one gold coin. Purifying and upgrading the metal nearly doubled the total value of everything.

  The best part of their loot haul, however, was that they managed to collect the weapons that Greelak needed. As it turned out, some of the monsters had multiple guns attached to their bodies. And at least two others had minigun attacks.

  None of the weapons worked at the moment, sadly. They would need to be refurbished first. The machine spirits could use them because of their unique abilities with machines.

  Even though it was getting late, they decided to eat dinner and then head back to Valkovia. Using the road, they would be able to get there long before Greelak closed, or Rhea had to go back to work.

  They took
little time in cleaning themselves up and eating dinner. Less than two hours after they sold their scrap, the road trip back to Valkovia was underway.

  Scott and Herbert planned to return in the morning to begin another round of training and hunting. Using their new vehicle, they could cut down a great deal of the time taken to haul things back and forth. Sadly, they would have to part with Rhea soon. Rhea would be logging after they finished their business with Greelak.

  Chapter 10

  Night had fallen by the time that the trio returned to the city. It was Scott's first time driving a vehicle through the busy streets of the alien city. His lack of skill was obvious to anyone who watched. Rhea had to show him how to drive in traffic on the busy streets of an ARS city. Anyone who knew her, knew to worry about far more than accruing a traffic ticket. Her driving style might be considered, sassy at best, and hysterically dangerous at worst.

  As things turned out, it was illegal for Scott to drive through town without a permit. He did not need an actual vehicle license. He merely needed to register his vehicle with the city.

  The laws were different than those of Earth. Traffic violations and laws governing the people who were allowed to drive only mattered if a traffic rule was actually violated. The enforcers were busy with more important work. Rhea assured him that he would be alright if caught without a permit. He would merely pay a small fine, and the enforcer would require that they purchase a permit on the spot. After that it would be a non-issue.

  Scott took it slow and did his best not to draw attention. Thankfully, their sweet new ride was not as bizarre as some of the other vehicles on the road. Blending in with the strange and whimsical was much easier than either of them anticipated, even Rhea. It seemed like vehicles from all over the place had come to town for some reason. Traffic was heavier than usual, though still quite light by Earth city standards.

  "So, you want to get to third and seventh, before you head toward the place where Greelak works," said Rhea.

  She pointed at an upcoming turn. Scott took it with all of the grace expected of someone driving a new vehicle in a foreign city. The sudden change in direction caused him to overreact slightly. He nearly clipped the curb, and narrowly managed not to hit a light post.

  Rhea snickered at him gently, but Scott was not ashamed. Even with wheels, their sweet new ride did not take well to sharp turns. Completing that turn in one piece was wonderful as far as he was concerned.

  The local police did not seek him out to fine him, and nothing more was made of his poor driving skills. Several more sharp turns were navigated before they found their way to the Sub Machine Gun shop that Greelak operated.

  Parking was sparse, but they found a spot nearby after a moment of trial and error. Inside the shop, Scott noticed that a handful of patrons were checking out the guns. No one held a sandwich bag, however. It was a strange sight as far as he was concerned. Greelak's sandwiches were quite good.

  "Yo, Greelak," said Scott, as he walked up to the counter.

  The orc looked up from the onions that he was chopping. Despite the aroma that permeated from the neatly sliced vegetation, Greelak showed no sign of shedding a tear. He was an orc, dammit! No mere onion would cause him to shed a tear. "Hey, my man. Welcome back."

  "Good to be back." Scott turned to Rhea and to Herbert. "This is my fiancé, Rhea. The furry badass there is my buddy Herbert."

  Greelak eyed Rhea for a moment then looked down to Herbert. "Good to meet you. Name's Greelak Elfsmasher."

  "Elfsmasher?" asked Rhea curiously.

  The orc laughed in a jovial manner. He then waved his knife around in a friendly sort of way. "I'd explain, but it wouldn't be polite in front of a lady."

  Rhea laughed softly, but then made her discomfort obvious when she stepped closer to Scott. Greelak's meaning was quite clear.

  Scott gently patted her on the arm, and then looked back to Greelak. "I think we've brought you some stuff that you might like."

  Orcish eyes widened in delight. "Did you now?"

  "Yeah, man. Do you have somewhere to unload stuff, or do you want me to bring it in the front door?" asked Scott.

  "You got the stuff nearby?" asked the orc.

  "Crankshaft hooked us up with a sweet ride. It's out front," said Scott. Mention of Crankshaft caused Greelak's eyes to go wide and shimmer slightly. It was quite a disturbing sight for Scott, actually. The rough and tumble orc looked almost man-pretty for a moment.

  He showed no concern for his shop as he went outside. Scott asked him about it on the way, but the orc merely waved him off. "They steal from me, I'll hunt 'em down."

  A low, slow, whistle escaped Greelak's lips as he saw Crankshaft's handiwork. "Now, that's a true beauty."

  Scott grinned at him then pulled a minigun out of storage. Greelak's eyes lit up once more. "Oh, now you're speakin' mah language, man!"

  The group shared a warm laugh then the exchange began. Greelak stored all of the weapons in a bag then motioned for them to follow him around to the side of the building. They entered his shop from a side door, and found themselves inside a beautiful wonderland filled tools of death and mayhem.

  "Damn. I need a shop like this," said Scott. Bits and pieces of guns, robot parts, and various blades were strewn about the place.

  "Everyone who gets to see it, says it." Greelak laughed loudly then locked the door behind them. "Can't have people gettin' in here. This is where mah real money comes from."

  "I figured that the sandwiches weren't the real attraction, even if I liked them," said Scott.

  Greelak grinned at him briefly, and then started to pull the guns from his bag "Give me a moment to test 'em. Need to so how much of a bonus to give ya."

  Scott nodded to him then went to stand near Rhea and Herbert. The rodent sat on a nearby table in order to see everything better. Rhea slipped her fingers between Scott's and leaned against the wall. All that was left to do was wait.

  Sparks flew while Greelak went about his business. Now and then a gun barrel would rotate swiftly in place then come to a stop with a series of clicks. He finished his task after a few minutes then turned to look at Scott. "I've seen better, but I'll take 'em!"

  The orc weaponsmith and restauranteur held up one finger then left the room. A few minutes later he returned with a small brown sack. "One gold for tha shipment, and another hunnerd fifty silver for quality."

  "I won't say no to that," said Scott, a slight grin on his face. Sure, the guns would have been worth a lot more if they actually worked. Earning over two gold for a contract was amazing at the current level of his group.

  Greelak tossed him the sack. The moment that Scott caught it, his Crysta-com made a beeping noise. The contract was complete. Not long after that his headache began to subside.

  "You find better, bring 'em to me. I'll buy 'em," said Greelak.

  "It's a deal," said Scott. "We'll see about finding some more."

  "Bring me something really nice, and I might give ya a special bonus," said Greelak with a grin.

  Scott laughed then nodded his head. "Sounds good. See you later with some better stuff."

  They left the back room after business was complete. The trio were quite satisfied with their pay for a job well done. The weapons that they traded in were worth considerably more if fully functional. Broken, and missing parts, they were little more than scrap to anyone without a high level of gunsmithing skill.

  The crew hopped in their rad mobile then went back to the hotel. It was slightly costly to stay there, but it was easier to keep the old place than it would be to hunt through the city every time they came back to town. Plus, they kept a few items in their room.

  Once they entered their humble abode, the team split up temporarily. Rhea went to do whatever elves did when they answered the call of nature. Scott sat down in front of the C-Vision, and Herbert went to check on his helmet.

  Scott fiddled with the controls briefly. There were few channels, nothing like on Earth, and all of them were f
ocused on infomercials at the moment. Sadly, none of the advertising-centric offerings interested him. Most of the current shows were focused on household supplies and jewelry that did not offer stat bonuses.

  Just as Rhea finished her business in the restroom, Scott sat up straight. The infomercial on the screen was interrupted by an emergency news broadcast.

  "What the—?" began Scott. Rhea joined him just in time to see what drew his attention.

  "That's right, we are coming to you live from the scene of carnage taking place in the Trinity Highcrowne region." The footage on the holographic screen showed a live broadcast of an attack on the all-too-familiar settlement.

  Dark armored monstrosities stalked through the streets, their axes rose and fell in a bid to slay anything that they could reach. Scott's eyes narrowed when he saw one of the living armors slam its axe into the door of the inn that they had been staying at recently.

  "Shit," he said, his chest heaving. The sight of carnage and bloodshed made his blood pressure begin to rise. The attack happened just after they left the area. Had they been there for another few hours, they would have been in the center of it all. More to the point, maybe they could have done something!

  "Looks like we left just in time," remarked Rhea. She eyed the images on the screen with casual interest. It was nothing that she had not seen countless times before.

  "Just in time?" Scott looked at her like she had lost her mind. "People are dying over there."

  Rhea pointed to the screen. Scott looked back to it then blinked. The reported had pulled back from the scene. The true scope of the battle came into view. Thousands of armored warriors were revealed. They swarmed around the small outpost like evil locusts hell-bent on devouring everything.

  "We would have died if we were there," said Rhea. She squeezed Scott's shoulder gently then continued, "By the time Valkovia marshals an offensive, that outpost will be long since dead." She held a quite grace about her as she said it, like she had accepted an inevitable thing.